


young, dumb and broke (emphasis on the broke)

by abigail2022



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, JJ + Kiara Forever, JJ saves the day, JJ’s in Denial, Kiara needs a hug, Kiara’s Hurt, They both deserve the world, mostly angst, rafe’s an ass, we all been knew
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:26:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24188881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abigail2022/pseuds/abigail2022
Summary: JJ doesn’t know how to cope with his best friend dying. He doesn’t know how to cope with a lot of things. He’s got tons of problems of his own to deal with.However, when Kiara needs him, suddenly all of those problems seem to pale into insignificance.
Relationships: JJ & Kiara & Pope (Outer Banks), JJ/Kiara (Outer Banks)
Comments: 20
Kudos: 184





	1. Chapter 1

Sunset. How vividly alluring it was, he mused. The rosy pinks, fluorescent oranges and fiery reds all coexisting with one another to paint a beautifully designed landscape. It was the little things like sunsets that served JJ as a reminder that things ending were just as promising as things beginning.

However, finally packing his bags and leaving his dad was an ending that certainly wasn’t expected by any means. JJ always assumed he would be thrown in foster care quicker than an abandoned puppy at the local shelter, but he hadn’t considered all of his available options. With a little help from Pope (and an ever-so-insistent Kiara) he was able to sign emancipation papers to rid him of his dad’s legal guardianship. His father signed the papers almost too willingly, something that both relieved and disheartened his son. While it was the right thing for him, JJ was sure, he wished his dad would have fought for him to stay. 

It was all over and done with now. Until he could acquire a job in the Outer Banks, JJ was temporarily crashing at the Chateau. It only seemed right, he mused, to be as close to John B as he could until the real estate agents managed to sell the old house off. All of his abandoned items and belongings were still there. To JJ, it was like John B never left. Was he still in denial about the whole situation? In part, yes. But the grief was as raw as it was on the faithful night he was told the news, and daresay JJ was afraid he would forget his best friend. It felt traitorous to pretend the whole ordeal simply never had happened.

His friends weren’t coping well either. Pope, on one hand, was emotionally drained. He sacrificed his education, his scholarship, and his future for John B, only to have it all slapped back in his face. John B was now dead, and consequently Pope had to deal with the aftermath of his rash decisions. Kiara, on the other hand, was the exact opposite of Pope. She closed her emotions and feelings off to the world, even to her two closest friends. She never made time to fish and surf anymore because she was too busy drowning herself in her work. The only thing that let JJ know she was still alive was the occasional text she shot him every now and then.

All was at a quiet standstill for the three Pogues. They should have known, sooner or later, it would all come crashing down around them. Sadly, JJ had assumed it would be the latter.

He should have known better.

There was a party that night. The Kooks were throwing it, and of course, JJ wasn’t invited. Unfortunately for them, he needed an adrenaline rush. A few beers here and there, and if he was lucky, a hot chick. It had been awhile since he decided to let loose; he’d be damned if he had lost his charming edge.

So he took his dad’s van (which, yes, he conveniently stole for the evening) and drove over to pick up Pope. Poor guy, he needed to lighten up a bit. Maybe some booze would do the job. 

Still no word from Kiara, though. Hopefully she’d come around eventually, because did JJ ever need guidance more than he did right now.

He arrived on the scene and drank in his surroundings hungrily. He was at the Camerons’ mansion (which still brings a bitter taste to his mouth) and Rafe was the one hosting the party. Funny that he was actually able to get away with murder. Sure, he did a horrible job at hiding what he’d done by murdering Peterkin in front of not one, but _two_ eyewitnesses. But oh of course, daddy’s money is there to save the day. Figures.

Desperate to get that off his mind, JJ started walking until he saw a girl standing beside a keggar. Man, did she ever look attractive. Definitely not his type, he noted, but certainly looking for a good time. He gave her one of his signature smiles and strode over to where she stood.

Of course, she already knew who he was. Kook or Pogue, he had quite the reputation among the ladies in the Outer Banks. It was something he could never escape; not that he would want to, anyway. Now more then ever, he relished the freedom and excitement his emancipation brought. Freedom to dance the night away, drink away his problems, and come home to a relaxing bed instead of an awful excuse for a father.

Words were exchanged and she gave JJ a name he didn’t even try to remember. No, that wasn’t the important part. It was the after, the way she practically threw herself onto him, that was important. It would have been amazing had he actually given himself into the moment. Here he was, fulfilling his desire for the chance to get out of his own head.

Yet, it wasn’t solving his problems for him like he had hoped. Instead, he was still reminiscing and thinking and wondering and _oh god, if only he could have done something different.._

He stopped. For once in his goddamn life, JJ _stopped._ This wasn’t what he needed anymore, and he knew it. He knew it, and it terrified the absolute shit out of him. Because no matter how much he tried to downplay what had happened, the events of the past few weeks had _changed_ him. The parties, the alcohol, none of it would help him anymore.

This was some deep psychological _bullshit,_ which dare he say was a lot considering everything he had already been through. Had he more time to think it all through, maybe he would have done things differently. Oh _fuck that,_ he wouldn’t have.

Because all it took was her scream (her awful, _heartbreaking_ scream) to send him barreling straight towards that goddamn mansion.

People were shoved, drinks were spilled, he’d address that later. The only thing that mattered was that Kiara had finally chosen to grace JJ with her presence.

Too bad it was with her broken, unconscious body bleeding out on the ground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> starting my first multi-chapter story! let’s do this.
> 
> kiara and jj are my favorite ship. i will go down with this ship. lot’s of friendship between the pogues are in this too, including an interesting plot i’ve thought of that hopefully i’ll be able to write well on paper.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> told from kiara’s point of view. 
> 
> some background on how she has handled her grief, as well as the party from her perspective.
> 
> due to this chapter getting more intense than i had originally planned, i have also updated some of the tags on this story! please take note of that as you continue reading.

Getting beat to a pulp by a drunk-off-his-ass Rafe certainly wasn’t on Kiara’s itinerary for the night.

Not that she should’ve been at this shitty excuse for a party in the first place. Kiara had nobody else but herself to blame for at least that much. How unlucky could she possibly be to have her _one_ night of freedom so screwed over? For the first time in weeks she decides to have some fun and already she finds herself face to face with death.

Death, in this sense, turning out to be none other than the venom-spitting oldest Cameron sibling whom Kiara had grown to despise.

She had been working at the Wreck nonstop since her two best friends died. Well, _went lost at sea._ Kiara refused to believe that two of the people she had loved even more than she loved herself were now dead. How ironic it was for her to follow in the exact same footsteps she had condemned John B for months earlier. What, was she a hypocrite now?

Kiara had always struggled with insomnia, but never like this. She never managed to get any sleep, and when she did, her rest was plagued with horrible nightmares of their shipwreck. So many scenarios seemed to be running through her mind at one million miles an hour. Did they get crushed on impact? Were they submerged in the raging currents and drowned to their demise? The never-ending questions were driving her insane. Her parents were worried, of course, but it didn’t bother her like it probably should have. Pop a few pills, a cup of coffee here and there, and she would be fine, right?

According to her mom (who thinks she supposedly knows shit), Kiara should be hanging out with her friends more. All of this “you only go to highschool once” garbage she didn’t buy for a second. Funny how all it took was the deaths of her two friends to make her parents respect who Kiara chose to hang out with. 

She couldn’t bring herself to even talk to Pope after everything that went down between the two of them. Kiara had never felt more confused than in the tense moments following their kiss. She didn’t view Pope as anything more than a friend, and when the chaos of the night finally blew over they both knew it. They were just overwhelmed and needed someone to lean on in that moment. Although Pope was able to take it like a champ, Kiara still wondered if their friendship would ever be the same.

And then there was JJ. _Oh god,_ there was JJ. He had been her closest comrade in those last few weeks leading up to the infamous catastrophe. Kiara admired how strong he was trying to be; out of the three grieving friends, JJ was undoubtedly the closest to John B. He was putting up a happy facade for her and Pope, she assumed. JJ had signed his emancipation papers, much to Kiara’s delight, and now he was temporarily living at the Chateau. Had things been different, maybe she would have gone to see him once in a while.

But the bottom line was, she was a burden. Such a _goddamned_ burden, and they all knew it.

So she lost contact with the two friends whom she relied on most. She was losing sleep (which was already a given) and on the rare occasion she ate, she couldn’t manage to keep her food down. Kiara was slowly unraveling, but she couldn’t even bring herself to care. 

During those long nights when sleep would evade her, she would think. She would think about how John B had welcomed her into the Pogues with open arms. Though she didn’t realize at the time, that decision had impacted her whole life. She would think about Sarah Cameron, how they were best friends and then enemies and then friends again once more. And she would think about how in her friends’ darkest hour, she wasn’t there to save them from succumbing in the roaring waves of despair.

Kiara now found herself in the middle of a Kook party, goddamnit _Rafe’s_ party. For her, Rafe Cameron was the devil incarnate. What Sarah never mentioned that lonesome night on the boat was that there was more than one reason for not inviting Kiara to her party. It went without saying that no matter how much they hated each other, they’d never bring the issue up. For that, Kiara was grateful. It made her feel just the tiniest bit better knowing Sarah hadn’t broken all of her promises.

Long story short, Rafe seemed to have a rather unhealthy obsession with Kiara. Neither she nor Sarah understood why. It was scary, she had to admit. Whenever her and Sarah went swimming, he always seemed to be lurking in the shadows. There was even one particular incident where Sarah actually caught Rafe outside her bedroom door snapping pictures of Kiara changing clothes. Talk about fucking _weird._

She should have known better than to go to a party _he_ was hosting. Or maybe at least tell somebody she knew what she was up to. But of course, Kiara didn’t. She was going off the deep end and she wanted to be reckless. 

It was actually fun at first. Everybody dancing, talking, laughing, _acting like normal teenagers._ Nobody was caught up in a huge money mystery. Nobody was shooting innocent police officers. Everyone here was acting how they should; like they didn’t give a damn.

Maybe that’s what eventually threw her off.

Kiara was fully aware she hadn’t been to a party in quite some time, but had everyone already forgot about John B and Sarah? Had it really been that long? Maybe she was just overreacting. After all, she was one of the only people who was truly close to them. But more than that, she felt the party did them injustice. For everyone to just pretend her two best friends simply didn’t exist? Oh _hell_ no.

She stormed off towards the mansion. The hot, sticky summer air was giving her a headache and she needed the air-conditioned coolness it had to offer. The whole party infuriated her, so much she didn’t realize she wasn’t looking where she was going. It wasn’t until she heard a startled, “Hey!” that she realized she had accidentally ran into someone.

Immediately feeling guilty, she turned back around. “Oh my goodness, I’m so-” she stopped mid-sentence. Because staring right back at her with his ice-cold, piercing blue eyes was none other than Rafe himself. The person who had ruined everything, for herself, her friends, and everyone involved.

She hated the way he looked at her up and down like she was a damn _object._ “Well, Kie, it’s been awhile.” She hated the way her nickname slid off his tongue like it was his to call her. She hated the way he gave her goosebumps, because albeit she was _afraid_ of him. After all, he _was_ a murderer.

She willed her legs to start moving. Where? It didn’t matter. As long as she got the hell away from him, she didn’t care. But she hadn’t taken two steps before she felt his slimy cold hand take its hold on her wrist. Rafe was even more drunk than her, and it showed. Kiara resisted the urge to cry. No, absolutely _no_ crying. “Come on princess, surely you’re going to stay for the party!” Rafe laughed. 

She doesn’t really remember what she said after that. Maybe a, “Get the fuck off me!” Yeah, she’ll go with that. Regardless, it’s not like it mattered. Of course he didn’t listen. Because from his twisted perspective, none of her friends, not even his sister, could get in the way of what he wanted this time around.

Kiara’s attempts to scream were muffled by Rafe’s calloused hand covering her mouth. He was dragging her to the mansion (where she had originally intended on going) but she knew what was going to happen before he even said anything out loud. She thrashed and kicked and fought with everything she had, but he wasn’t letting up. “Shut your trap, filthy slut,” Rafe hissed in her ear.

The drinks she had earlier seemed to suddenly be catching up to her. Where was she again? The world was spinning, her pleas were getting weaker with every breath, and all she could feel was Rafe’s unwanted touch on her skin.

 _Sarah, your brother’s an ass,_ was the last thing she thought before the ground rushed up to meet her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i had originally planned on posting this yesterday, but i decided to wait until today. there were a lot of things i had to tweak so this chapter would flow more smoothly.
> 
> i received so much love for my first chapter! i was pretty shocked to say the least. thank you so much! i hope you all like this one as well.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> pope tells his version of how him and jj manage to get kie home.

JJ definitely isn’t the type to worry about just anything. So when he ran up to Pope blubbering and stuttering so fast his words were incomprehensible, Pope immediately knew something was wrong.

Pope being the nerd that he was, began to analyze the situation at hand. Was JJ about as stoned as you could get? More than likely. But whatever he was stressing out about, it was obviously important to him. “Calm down, JJ. Tell me exactly what’s going on,” Pope said.

JJ looked like he was about to explode like a pack of fireworks on the Fourth of July. His hair was unkempt (a first for him) and the bright blue waves in his eyes were roaring with anguish. He started tugging on Pope’s arm and began to drag him towards the Camerons’ mansion. “We h-have to go, she’s r-really h-hurt and I don’t know what to do and she won’t even let me g-go near her and-”

Pope froze in his tracks and held his hands up. Yeah, something was definitely up, and he didn’t particularly like the sound of it either. “Woah, JJ, what the actual _fuck_ are you talking about?”

JJ just grabbed his arm again and continued dragging him, much to his complaints. “Come on, man, we have to go!”

Much to his horror, Pope finally figured out what JJ was going on about. In an abandoned part of the woods near the Camerons’ mansion was a very unconscious Kiara. She was clad in nothing but her bra and her shorts (which happened to be unbuttoned). Her arm was at an awkward (and definitely painful) angle, and bruises were splattered across her torso and neck.

“She’s hurt, she’s hurt so bad Pope. I don’t know what happened, I wasn’t there to stop it, I just found her like this and I-”

Pope placed a finger over JJ’s mouth before he could finish. “Don’t start blaming yourself. That’s not what Kie needs right now. She needs _help._ Go pull the van around, and I’ll get her situated as best I can.” Damn, things must be getting really bad if _Pope_ was reassuring _JJ._

JJ looked hesitant, as if he was afraid of what would happen if he left her again. Pope understood where he was coming from. “JJ, _go._ I’m not going anywhere.”

That seemed to finally get through to him. He took off at a sprint with his tousled blonde hair flying through the late night breeze. Had he ran that fast at soccer tryouts, maybe he would have made the school team.

Pope focused his attention back on Kiara. He examined her wounds carefully; moving her definitely wasn’t going to be easy. “Kie?” he hesitantly said. “Kie, it’s me, Pope.”

When she didn’t respond, he reached over and gently touched her forehead. She was sweating profusely; Pope didn’t want to think about how long she had been abandoned out there. At his touch, she let out the faintest of whimpers and tried moving away from him. “Don’t t-t-touch m-me,” she choked out. 

Her words weren’t necessarily coherent, but Pope was able to read between the lines. He recoiled at her request more out of confusion than compliance. “Kie, hey, it’s okay, it’s just Pope,” he tried to reassure her.

He was completely aware she was out of it. But when he tried yet again to assess her injuries, her whimpers turned into pleas. “Please d-don’t t-touch me!” she begged. Unbeknownst to her, tears began to form in her eyes. With every tear that rolled down her cheeks, Pope felt his heart break for her that much more.

How the _hell_ was Pope supposed to help his best friend when she was afraid of him? It was an awful situation for all involved. Did he listen to her and let her injuries become infected? Did he try to help her whilst ignoring her cries for him to stop? 

He had never been more grateful to see JJ pull up in his dad’s van than he did in that moment. JJ hastily hopped out of the driver’s seat and ran to where Pope was crouched over Kiara. “Pope, I know she’s in pain, but you know we have to move her.”

Pope just gave him a grim nod in reply. JJ crouched down so that he was eye-level with Kiara. “Kie. Hey, it’s me.” Pope didn’t think he had ever heard JJ sound so gentle with someone since they had become friends. “Pope and I are going to get you in the van, alright? You’re safe now.”

JJ carefully swooped Kiara in his arms and held her bridal style despite her protests for her to stop. “No, please, please stop!” she cried. Both boys winced at the terror in her voice. “Let go of me, please! Let go!”

Pope opened the back door of the van as JJ attempted to calm her down. She was struggling against his grip, but JJ held her ever so firmly while quietly whispering it would all be alright. When they finally got Kiara situated, Pope sat next to her while JJ quickly hopped in the front seat. 

“Where are you going to take her?” Pope asked. He knew Kiara was most certainly not a fan of hospitals, but he wasn’t sure how much a simple first aid kit could do. Her parents would definitely freak if they saw her like this; taking her home in this state definitely wasn’t an option either.

JJ’s hands gripped the steering wheel so tight his knuckles were a sickly shade of white. “We’re going straight to the Chateau. There’s an old first aid kit I used to use when my dad would beat on me,” he said. Pope involuntarily flinched. He hated thinking about how horrible of a home life JJ had growing up.

Kiara had finally stopped mumbling. A sheen of sweat was developing on her forehead and her eyelids were constantly fluttering. Pope wanted to vomit at the sight of the way she slumped over the seat like a lifeless rag doll.

JJ seemed to notice Pope’s senses were going into overdrive. He parked in the driveway of their best friend’s old house and turned around to face the back seat. If it were even possible, his bloodshot eyes seemed to soften. “I sure as hell don’t know what we’re going to do, but the main thing is that she’s safe with us,” JJ whispered. “We’re going to help her the best way we know how, okay?”

How JJ knew what to do in any situation, Pope would never know. Sure, he was freaking out earlier, but in the grand scheme of things he was able to get everything under control. Pope found himself wishing he could be more like that.

The mumbling began again as soon as they got Kiara in the Chateau. The boys had to clean up her scrapes and cuts before they would get infected. They were worried to say the least. Kiara was easily the only girl they both loved like a sister. Pope and JJ seemed to balance each other out; JJ was seething with rage while Pope was scared shitless. 

If Kiara knew what they had to do to clean her up, she’d undoubtedly freak out. There were certain.. areas that were worse than others and it made both boys uncomfortable just thinking about it. But at the end of the day it had to be done, so they set off to work.

By the time they patched up everything they could, JJ and Pope were exhausted. Kiara had thrashed and screamed (even kicking Pope _right_ in the jaw) all night. Not to mention JJ had to set her arm back in place, which was one hell of a ride. They both had more or less been in complete shock, but that shock was slowly ebbing away for anger to take its place. Pope was frightened to see what the next morning would hold.

Because an angry JJ definitely doesn’t play nice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> there may be some issues with this chapter because i wrote it quickly, but i just couldn’t help myself. 
> 
> i hope y’all enjoy!


End file.
